Process engineering systems, in particular fluidic systems, comprise a multitude of components which generate process values, e.g. measured values or parameters, and are therefore referred to as producers of the respective process values. In addition, process values are processed by the components of the system, or the respective components are closed-loop or open-loop controlled with the aid of the process values. Such components processing the process values are referred to as consumers of the process values. For exchanging the process values, the components of such a system are in most cases connected among one another via a BUS system. The components are thus also users of this BUS system.
In a process engineering system, the consumers and the producers of process values need to be allocated so as to match each other. In particular, each consumer of a process value should be able to receive from a producer the process values which it requires, to allocate them to the respective producer and consume them as needed. An allocation between consumers and producers of process values is frequently effected with the aid of a master unit of the system. Such a master unit has the necessary information at its disposal with regard to the process values produced and consumed by the individual components of the system. Based on this information, an appropriate allocation can be made. But system architectures of this type are not very flexible since in the case of an exchange of components or when changes are made to the system, the master unit needs to be reconfigured, involving great effort.